Thursday, 29 November 2012

You don't have to be a whizz at maths to see that the [energy bill] targets will require a steep growth rate in renewables. It would be a remarkable trajectory, taking wind from a 1% share of the nation's electricity to around 25% in under 15 years, overtaking nuclear power in the process. But can this actually happen?

Yes it really can, provided the industry (both in the UK and abroad) continues to make the strides it has been making over the past few years. At around 9.30pm on a cold day in mid-September last year, something extremely exciting happened in the UK (albeit completely unnoticeable to all but a few operators in the National Grid's control centre): wind power set a new all-time generation record of 3.98GW. "System demand" at the time was 34.9GW which meant that, for the first time in the UK's history, the wind was meeting more than 10% of our total electricity demand, nearly 12% actually.

The FTSE 100 company warned that commercial volumes continued to be hit by a large rise in unemployment in the North West of England in the last two years.

But United, which covers seven million people in the North West, posted a 4% increase in revenue to £822.9 million in the half year to September 30 as prices rose 5.8%.

The Cheshire-based group said underling pre-tax profit was up 3% to £190 million in the period as it invested £354 million in its network.

The company, which revamped its customer services last year after it received more complaints than any of its rivals in 2010/2011, said complaints had fallen a further 12% in the half year. It had no "escalated" complaints for the first time, it added.

Chief executive Steve Mogford said: "We are continuing to invest in our network for the benefit of our customers, the environment and the local economy."

head of next week’s Autumn Statement from the Chancellor George Osborne, the Environmental Services Association (ESA) has issued a report that calls for a new package of green taxes and fiscal incentives to help stimulate investment in the top end of the waste hierarchy.

In the report, Beyond Landfill: Using Green Taxes to Incentivise the Waste Hierarchy, the ESA also warns that policy makers rely too much on landfill tax to deliver their waste and resources objectives.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

VINCE Cable will officially open the UK's "green" bank based in Scotland, as he announces details of its first investments.

Funded with £3billion of Government money, the The Green Investment Bank (GIB) in Edinburgh, will help to develop a green economy.

First to benefit from the fund is a project in the north east of England that will generate energy from waste.

Around £8million will go to the construction of an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Teesside, the first of six planned over the next five years.

This will be matched with a further £8million from the private sector, according to the Government.

The GIB will also invest £5million to fit manufacturer Kingspan's UK industrial facilities with systems that will reduce its energy consumption by 15 per cent.

Speaking in Edinburgh, where the new bank is headquartered, Mr Cable will say: "The Green Investment Bank - a key coalition pledge - is now a reality.

"It will place the green economy at the heart of our recovery and position the UK in the forefront of the drive to develop clean energy.

"Three billion pounds of Government money will leverage private sector capital to fund projects in priority sectors from offshore wind to waste and non-domestic energy efficiency, helping to deliver our commitment to create jobs and growth right across the UK."

Whilst still officially unannounced the Coalition government’s Energy Bill has already begun to make waves amongst the commercial energy industry, after more of it’s details were made public this week. The Energy Bill is much-awaited by the entire energy market as it is set to lay out the way in which Britain will meet it’s energy needs over the coming decades, with key topics like decarbonisation, renewables, subsidies and business energy all set to be addressed.

With the results from the government's Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme submissions expected imminently, eyes are likely to focus on the performance league table and how authorities compare, both with each other and with the private sector.

In a recent survey of suitability officers participating in the Carbon Trust's public sector carbon network, 61% reported that the carbon reduction commitment has helped get energy consumption recognised at a senior level within local authorities. The majority of these (39% of 61%) suggested that the scheme's financial imperatives have been the direct cause of the closer focus.

New research commissioned by the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has revealed that a large number of top executives and main investors within the UK electricity industry believe that government’s proposed Electricity Market Reforms (EMR) will not help the UK meet its 2020 decarbonsiation target.

The results of the survey, titled Electricity Market Reform: Call For Clarity, show that 77% of those surveyed felt that EMR will not enable the 2020 decarbonisation targets to be met. In contrast, only 18% felt that it would.

A large majority of respondents (64%) also indicated that they think the UK will fall short of its 2020 private sector investment target of £110 billion. The majority felt that the target was ‘out of reach’, with a number questioning whether it would even be possible to spend that amount of money by then.

Of all sectors supported by EMR, offshore wind generation was seen to be the sector given the biggest boost by the outlined proposals. Nearly 80% of those surveyed saw the investment case for offshore wind boosted compared to 54% for gas-fired generation and 41% for nuclear.

EDF Energy, who operate the Penly nuclear power plant in France, have been granted the UK's first new nuclear plant licence in 25 years. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

BRITAIN has awarded its first new nuclear power plant site licence for 25 years to French energy giant EDF, which is looking to build a new station in southwest England.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation on Monday granted the licence to NNB Generation Company, a subsidiary of the French utility's British arm EDF Energy, which wants to build a new plant at Hinkley Point on the Somerset coast.

NNB GenCo is planning to build two European pressurised water reactors (EPRs) at Hinkley Point. The ONR is working with the Environment Agency government body to assess the reactor's generic design.

The two regulators issued interim acceptance for the designs in December 2011. A final decision could be made by the end of this year, after which the reactor can be built if the remaining hurdles are cleared.

Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy managing director of nuclear new build, said: "The award of a nuclear site licence for Hinkley Point C is another crucial step forward as we ready ourselves to build the first new nuclear reactors in the UK for around 20 years, subject to our final investment decision."

He added: "The proposed new power station in Somerset will provide enough low carbon electricity to power five million homes and its construction will create around 25,000 jobs at site alone, giving a real boost to the economy.

"However, there is still a great deal of work to be done before this nationally significant infrastructure project can become a reality."

EDF is hoping to build four EPRs in Britain - two at Hinckley and two at Sizewell on the eastern English coast in Suffolk. It is in talks with several potential partners.

BRITAIN has awarded its first new nuclear power plant site licence for 25 years to French energy giant EDF, which is looking to build a new station in southwest England.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation on Monday granted the licence to NNB Generation Company, a subsidiary of the French utility's British arm EDF Energy, which wants to build a new plant at Hinkley Point on the Somerset coast.

NNB GenCo is planning to build two European pressurised water reactors (EPRs) at Hinkley Point. The ONR is working with the Environment Agency government body to assess the reactor's generic design.

The two regulators issued interim acceptance for the designs in December 2011. A final decision could be made by the end of this year, after which the reactor can be built if the remaining hurdles are cleared.

Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy managing director of nuclear new build, said: "The award of a nuclear site licence for Hinkley Point C is another crucial step forward as we ready ourselves to build the first new nuclear reactors in the UK for around 20 years, subject to our final investment decision."

The long awaited government bill addresses how Britain will meet its energy needs in the future, but has been branded ‘disappointing’ by green building groups over its lack of focus and clarity when it comes to energy efficiency.

According to a statement released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), a fifth of the UK’s electricity generating capacity is due to close this decade meaning ‘reforms are needed to provide certainty to investors to bring forward £110 billion investment in new infrastructure to keep the lights on and continue the shift to a diverse, low carbon economy as cheaply as possible’.

The government has told energy companies that they can add up to £7.6bn onto household energy bills in order to help pay for new power generation methods.

Whilst still officially unannounced the Coalition government’s Energy Bill has already begun to make waves amongst the commercial energy industry, after more of it’s details were made public this week. The Energy Bill is much-awaited by the entire energy market as it is set to lay out the way in which Britain will meet it’s energy needs over the coming decades, with key topics like decarbonisation, renewables, subsidies and business energy all set to be addressed.

Chilly UK homeowners are taking action after a string of harsh winters – with 111,000 in the East of England fitting extra insulation to their property in the last year, new research from the Energy Saving Trust has found.

The latest statistics show an incredible 54 per cent of homes in the East of England still have under-insulated lofts and 651,000 have un-insulated cavity walls – with millions of UK households still eligible for free or discounted help to solve their heat-loss problems

Through the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) scheme, around four million homes in the UK have taken up grants and offers to pay for cavity wall or loft insulation since April 2008.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

If you're the type of person who thinks working out is just a waste of energy, then a new gym developed in the UK might help change your mind.

This new fitness center, situated in a city park in Hull, northeast England, not only provides a facility for local residents to get fit but also generates electricity every time the equipment is used.

"The goal is that a gym like this should serve a community of about 5,000 people and really people could easily make a kilowatt hour per day. So, if you times that by the amount of gyms that we could possibly install, that actually becomes quite a significant amount of energy," Delaney said.

Monday, 26 November 2012

The Birmingham City Council chose Carillion Energy Services for its partner in the Green Deal property improvement work. By 2020, 60,000 homes around the city will have their properties outfitted with some kind of energy efficient measure like new boilers or insulation. It’s believed that the initial work will be around £600 million.

Millions of hard-pressed families were today told that an extra £3 a week on their energy bills would be a “reasonable price” to pay for more wind farms and nuclear power stations.

Lib-Dem Energy Secretary Ed Davey announced a major Coalition deal to pay for a construction programme in the biggest reforms to the energy market for decades. Critics claim that the legislation will send bills soaring.

The Government will put £7.6 billion towards “green” power generation in 2020 — up from £2.35 billion this year.

Today’s deal was the subject of major wrangling in the Coalition. Mr Davey wanted clean energy and limits on carbon emissions, while Chancellor George Osborne supported new gas power plants and tax relief for shale gas exploration in the UK.

There were reports today that bills will rise by up to £178 a year over the next two decades because of the new green policies. But Mr Davey insisted that support for low-carbon electricity will add less than £100 to the average household’s annual bills.

He said: “The impact from supporting green policy is only two per cent on people’s bills at the moment. By 2020 it will be about seven per cent. We are talking about less than £100 in 2020.”

Mr Davey said the impact of other government measures, such as initiatives to encourage energy efficiency, will result in a £94 overall saving on household power bills by 2020.

There is a simple way to think about the complex energy policy decisions made today: it is a £200bn bet on the UK's energy future. What's more, the money on the table belongs to you. Win or lose, every electricity and gas customer will pick up the tab for this wager for decades to come.

In such a high-rolling game, you would have hoped for cool heads. Instead, "unholy war" was waged behind the Westminster scenes, a senior participant told me. Worse, the boiling row within the coalition was driven as much by ideology and party politics as cold, hard facts. In fact, the opposing sides had "different facts", the source said.

All sides agreed on one thing at least. The problem the much-delayed energy bill seeks to solve is a fiendish one. It requires predicting the future and is not so much a dilemma as a trilemma. The solution must keep the lights on while simultaneously preventing energy bill payers from being fleeced and tackling the ever-growing dangers of climate change. Furthermore, we are not starting from a strong position. Two decades of under-investment in our energy infrastructure has left a dirty and decaying system.

Friday, 23 November 2012

The UK Government has finally provided a clear commitment of support for the renewable energy industry today with the major announcement of a £7.6 billion package of investment.

After months of uncertainty, the Government revealed the huge financial boost as it set out the measures for inclusion in the upcoming Energy Bill.

It has been estimated that the Treasury's firm commitment for the provision of £7.6 billion for the renewable energy sector between 2015 and 2020 will now act as the catalyst for at least a further £40 billion of private sector investment.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey said today's landmark agreement on energy policy would deliver a clear and long-lasting signal to investors.

He said: “This is a durable agreement across the Coalition against which companies can invest and support jobs and our economic recovery.

“The decisions we’ve reached are true to the Coalition Agreement, they mean we can introduce the Energy Bill next week and have essential electricity market reforms up and running by 2014 as planned.

“They will allow us to meet our legally binding carbon reduction and renewable energy obligations and will bring on the investment required to keep the lights on and bills affordable for consumers.”

The surprise news was welcomed by trade association RenewableUK, which said the cash support would create tens of thousands of jobs and help build up the industry to become one of the country's biggest engines for growth.

And they claimed the pledge was a sign the Treasury and the Department of Climate Change are finally working together to deliver investment, jobs and a low-carbon future.

Energy firms will be allowed to triple the amount of money they add to customers' bills to pay for renewable power, nuclear and other environmental measures, under plans to be announced by the government next week.

The deal over a new energy bill, struck after weeks of sometimes bitter negotiations between the coalition partners, will mean the total amount energy suppliers can add to domestic and business bills will rise from £2.35bn this year to nearly £10bn at the end of this decade. Adjusting for inflation that would be worth £7.6bn in today's prices, an increase of nearly three times.

Based on government estimates that green measures make up £20 of the average domestic gas and electricity bill of £1,249 a year, the cost of increasing the cash set aside to pay for renewable investment would rise to about £80, or £60 adjusted for inflation. However, officials argue that by the end of the decade the benefits of energy-saving measures and less reliance on expensive fossil fuel power will mean bills are actually lower than they would be without the green policies.

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Private and commercial energy companies look set to have to reduce the number of tariffs they offer under new proposals by the UK government revealed this week. A bid by the government to end the confusion over business gas, water and electricity bills the upcoming Energy Bill will also include a policy that will force energy companies to put households and other customers onto the cheapest tariff by default. Energy secretary Ed Davey said that the move would help homes and places of work alike deal with rising costs. At an appearance at the energy select committee, Davey said.

Annual wholesale gas and power prices hit six-month highs in October, despite falling international energy prices. This was driven by rising demand and concerns the UK would not be able to attract any LNG cargoes over the near term. The annual power contract is now at levels last seen in the spring. Annual April 2013 baseload electricity increased to a six-month peak of £52.9/MWh on 23 October – 10% above summer lows and 1% above the highest point in August. Despite this, annual April 13 baseload power remains around 6% lower than this time last year. Annual April 2013 gas reached a six-month high of 67.2p/th on 23 October; this is 3% higher than last month, but still 4% below last year’s figures.

Private and commercial energy companies look set to have to reduce the number of tariffs they offer under new proposals by the UK government revealed this week. A bid by the government to end the confusion over business gas, water and electricity bills the upcoming Energy Bill will also include a policy that will force energy companies to put households and other customers onto the cheapest tariff by default. Energy secretary Ed Davey said that the move would help homes and places of work alike deal with rising costs. At an appearance at the energy select committee, Davey said.

A top energy analyst has claimed the data provided by the whistleblower to Ofgem neither proves nor disproves any suggestion of rigging wholesale prices ahead of the winter months.

Patrick Avis told Huffington Post UK there were any number of reasons to explain the low prices submitted on the day which is being investigated by energy regulator Ofgem and the Financial Services Authority, ranging from a genuine attempt to rig the market to a simple typo.

"From what I have read it seems that the agency (ICIS Heren, which publishes energy pricing reports) was debating how best to reflect the prices and took a middle of the road approach," he explained.

"It's very easy to read manipulation into the market and to fit circumstances to fit a message; without seeing the next level of detail it's very hard to say for certain.

"As a roughly comparable example, whenever someone buys a TV on an electrical company's website for £1, they're clearly buying the TV well below market, but does that mean the retailer is trying to manipulate the market, or are their computer systems experiencing gremlins and someone is snapping up a bargain?"

The furore over wholesale energy pricing -and the alleged manipulation of price - came about after a 'whistleblower' from ICIS Heren told the FSA that Britain's £300bn wholesale gas market has been "regularly" manipulated by some of the big power companies.

Separately, the energy regulator Ofgem has been warned by ICIS Heren that it had seen evidence of suspect trading on 28 September, a key date as it marks the end of the gas financial year and can have an important influence on future prices.

Friday, 16 November 2012

Surrey County Council (SCC) said it hoped to cut up to £7.5m from people's bills, saving households £250 a year.

"This is one of the first and biggest schemes of its kind in the country," said Councillor Denise Le Gal.

Clare Francis, of comparison website MoneySupermarket, said the scheme would not be the best deal for everyone.

Collective switching, pioneered in Belgium and the Netherlands, allows groups of customers, often organised by local councils or a community groups to choose the best rate by changing tariff at the same time.

Energy giant EDF has launched a dedicated Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) electricity contract as part of its Customer Commitments, in which it pledged in April 2012 to improve services to SMEs.

The New Start tariff is aimed at entrepreneurs, start-ups and businesses that have moved into new premises, and features short term contracts of six-to-nine months, freedom to leave the contract without penalty if their circumstances change unexpectedly, and a fixed, daily charge of just 5p.

EDF will also not automatically roll over New Start customers at the end of their contract, a key measure campaigned for by energy lobbying groups.

Richard Hughes, director of SME at EDF Energy, said he hoped the combination of flexibility, simplicity and low standing charges New Start offers will help remove one of the barriers which could affect a businesses’ success.

Customer Sandra McGarrigle said in a press release that she chose EDF's New Start tariff for her new Betty La La’s restaurant in Brighton because not only was it cheaper, but also she isn't tied in long-term.

"I am so busy at the moment that the last thing I want to be worried about is gas and electricity and just don’t have the time to be shopping around. I can say now, 'that’s sorted', and in nine months when I have more time I can review it,” she said.

Baroness Worthington, who worked briefly for Scottish and Southern Energy, insisted executives running the electricity and gas giants were not “sharks” who drove around in expensive cars.

However, her staunch defence of the industry contradicted the sustained criticism of energy price rises that her party leader has mounted in recent months.

In one of his first concrete policies announced as he opened the Labour conference, Mr Miliband declared he would change the law to force gas and electricity companies to pass on price cuts to customers.

He has attacked energy firms for “ripping off” customers after a series of steep price rises.

However, in an interview with the House magazine, a parliamentary journal, Lady Worthington, Labour’s energy spokesman in the Lords, said companies “do a really difficult job very well”.

“Having seen from within, they keep the country running... very, very professionally,” she said. “And they’re not out there running around in Jaguars. They’re not sharks.”

Monday, 12 November 2012

Renewable energy capacity will overtake nuclear power in the UK by 2018, if current rates of growth continue, and will provide enough power for one in 10 British homes by 2015, according to new research.

The amount of electricity supplied by wind energy alone is up by a quarter since 2010, in a surprisingly good year for the renewables industry. While the government has notably cooled on wind power - more than 100 Tory MPs signed a statement this year opposing new wind farms, and the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has queried the future of subsidies - the industry has continued to grow, with investment in offshore wind up by about 60 per cent to £1.5bn in the past year. Planning approvals for onshore wind farms also rose, up by about half, to reach a record level, according to the trade association Renewable UK.

Annual wholesale gas and power prices hit six-month highs in October, despite falling international energy prices. This was driven by rising demand and concerns the UK would not be able to attract any LNG cargoes over the near term. The annual power contract is now at levels last seen in the spring. Annual April 2013 baseload electricity increased to a six-month peak of £52.9/MWh on 23 October – 10% above summer lows and 1% above the highest point in August. Despite this, annual April 13 baseload power remains around 6% lower than this time last year. Annual April 2013 gas reached a six-month high of 67.2p/th on 23 October; this is 3% higher than last month, but still 4% below last year’s figures.

The Energy Bill has been a long time coming. It has taken a decade of energy reviews, a dozen energy ministers, and three major white papers to reach the obvious conclusion that the current energy market is not fit for purpose. The economic crisis has bought more time, but the investment needs are finally beginning to catch up with the government, as are the dictates of the carbon and renewables targets.

Rising energy bills, falling capacity margins, and the sheer costs of renewables and nuclear have the makings of a perfect energy storm.

As this process of reviews and white papers has gone on, there has been ‘mission creep’. Each successive attempt to solve the energy policy problems has added yet more objectives and proposals for intervention.

The result is an amazingly complex set of proposals that will see interventions in each and every technology. First it was fixing the renewables and the government ended up setting different support levels for each and every renewable technology.